MMI grads mark the end of an era
Published 11:05 pm Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Dawit Soloman, left, and Tyler Yeager, display their diplomas following graduation ceremonies at Marion Military Institute. The two attended four years of high school and two years of junior college at MMI, making them the final ‘6-year cadets’ to graduate from the school. -- Special photo
Tyler Yeager and Dawit Soloman brought the end of an era at Marion Military Institute this year.
The institute, which has been the proving grounds for young men and women since as far back as 1842 when it served as the first site of Howard College, closed its high school doors in 2006 when the Alabama state legislature passed a resolution placing MMI under the auspices of the Alabama Department of Postsecondary Education.
Even with the resolution, though, students who were involved in the high school were allowed to finish their education as Tigers, and Soloman and Yeager did just that.
“As a part of the resolution, we never accepted new kids past 2006,” MMI director of alumni affairs Carrie Williams said. “But we had an obligation to continue the education of all of the students attending the high school.”
Both cadets graduated from the MMI Junior College, finally closing out that chapter.
Soloman and Yeager were the last of the “6-year cadets,” as Williams described them, and Soloman said he would never be able to forget the years he spent in Marion.
“I will never forget the first time I came to visit MMI, and I saw the battalion commander calling the corps to attention, and they sounded off with ‘truth, honor, service’ and went on to Pass in Review,” Soloman said. “They had so much pride in it that I told myself no matter how long it takes, I would graduate high school and college from here, and I am very proud to say that I made it. It was nothing that was given to me; I earned it through hard work and dedication. I achieved this goal I set for myself.”
Even though he will now leave to work on his bachelor’s degree in operational management, a master’s degree in organizational leadership and a possible long career in the military, it will be the skills he learned at MMI he will take with him everywhere.
“I can write a novel about my time at Marion and the lessons I learned, but in all my time at MMI, I have seen many people come and go,” Soloman said. “Through their actions and attitudes I have learned many leadership styles that will carry me through, God willing, a long and extraordinary Army career.”
Soloman plans to attend the University of Alabama in the fall, while Yeager plans to attend Middle Tennessee State University.
Attempts by the Times-Journal to contact Yeager were unsuccessful.
